Published on
A Pilot Project Is Not a Leap Into the Unknown
From a recent preliminary conversation: “Could you send us the certifications, references and the IT checklist? We also process sensitive data.”
I like questions like that. Not because they sound distrustful, but because they show the topic is being taken seriously. Security, access concepts, data classification: all of that needs settling properly before a new use case goes live.
What I often observe: the legitimate security discussion gets conflated with the pilot question. And suddenly the pilot itself looks like a risk experiment.
A good pilot project is the opposite. Not trying things to see whether they somehow work, but a controlled proof of value with clear guard rails.
In concrete terms: within two to four weeks a first driver model exists. Scenarios get played through live, with real driver effects. One specific steering question gets answered. At the end there is a go or no-go against criteria defined in advance.
The bigger risk is rarely the pilot. The bigger risk is continuing to invest in steering logic that explains variances instead of preparing decisions.